Country Countdown USA is a nationally syndicated weekly country music top-30 chart countdown program hosted by Lon Helton. Debut The show premiered on the Mutual Broadcasting System in April 1992. The program began as the brainchild of Westwood One Chairman Norman J. Pattiz who assigned the project to his Programming VP, Gary Landis. Although Westwood One had several country programs mainly broadcast on its co-owned Mutual network, the company didn't have a weekly country countdown show. At the time, the leader was American Country Countdown with Bob Kingsley (now hosted by Kix Brooks). It was a traditional countdown show modeled after Casey Kasem’s American Top 40. Other shows on the air at the time included Unistar’s Weekly Country Music Countdown with Chris Charles (no longer on the air) and TNN’s Crook & Chase Top 40 (still on the air). The latter two included pre-recorded interview clips with artists, while ACC was strictly a scripted show (although interviews would later be added). Format Landis' concept was simple: A DJ and a country star co-host would count down the week’s top 30 and talk about the songs and artists in the chart. Gary first began looking for talent. Numerous DJs were considered, before they decided on Radio & Records' Country Editor, Lon Helton. Gary called Lon directly and offered him the job. The country star was a more difficult decision. No single country star was willing to commit to a 52-week schedule. So the decision was made to have a different country star act as co-host every week. It would be a three-hour show, playing the week’s Top 30. Unlike other syndicated shows at the time, the show featured only three commercial breaks per hour, and a music sweep at the top of the hour, based on the formats of most country radio stations. Landis then looked for a producer to oversee the program. Mutual Broadcasting System Senior Producer George Achaves quickly jumped at the chance. George had worked with Lon on a short-lived weekly country show called Listen In. He also did Mutual’s holiday country specials with WHN DJ Lee Arnold. Lon’s office manager, Jo Pincek, was tapped to handle artist relations. The show became the first Westwood One show to be delivered exclusively on compact disc. History When Country Countdown USA began on April 4, 1992, the show had about 75 affiliates, including WYNY-FM New York and KLAC Los Angeles.